Truth versus environmental fallacies

Throughout the world there are thousands of people and lobby groups making a good living with their less than scrupulous tactics.

They work hard to make us and governments construe that “the sky is falling” because Chicken Little says so. They hope we will, without proper evaluation of the facts at hand, blow our hard-earned cash on their mock crisis, always assuring us our investment will be worth every penny and more in the end.I will dwell on one example only because it alone has many variables and because of that I will ask you to accept my middle-of-the-road findings. The topic, Electric Cars Will Save Our Planet. The hard facts dispute this claim in spades. C02 emitted from gas versus electric cars is the main issue. The claim is that electric cars emit no C02 and therefore are far superior to gas driven vehicles for that reason.In fact, just making the electric cars and their caustic lithium batteries creates the equivalent of one third of the total CO2 emitted by gas driven cars. The total CO2 output for electric cars ranged from 31 to 44 metric tons.The total for gasoline driven cars ranged from only three to five tons more. European calculations for the cost of reducing one ton of C02 is $7. Thus the extra cost on the larger calculation of five tons more is only $35. The United States is offering government subsidies of up to $7,500 per electric vehicle to apparently offset the $35 saving. Do the math on that. Multitudes of governments are spewing out billions of dollars in subsidies, grants and tax write offs that are a complete waste of money.Electricity in the U.S. is produced in may ways for electric cars. Solar, wind and other renewable sources produce only 14 per cent and they are not cost effective either. It is projected they will only increase a mere three to 17 per cent in another 25 years. Coal and fossil fuels will remain steady at about 65 per cent.On average, the same model cars cost about two and one half to three times more for electric versus gasoline driven. Enough electrical charging stations are a problem, as is cold weather, distance before recharging and disposal of the batteries. Now, more examples for outlining the adversities for electrical cars. A Chevy Volt was specifically test driven over four days starting on a fully-charged battery. The gas engine had too take over after only 25 miles. The battery took 10 hours to fully charge from stone dead. The electric model costs $46,000 while the same gas model costs $15,000.Oh, by the way, home charging for a Telsa requires 75 amp service. The average house uses 100 amp service. On a street with 25 dwellings having only three with one Telsa electric car each would max out the electrical structure. Then what for charging the other 22 electric cars or many other necessary needs?Will someone please summon the courage to pass my findings on to the belligerent, partisan “save the world crowd.” If only they were ready to learn, even I could be their teacher as their misinformed beliefs are not without salvation if they choose to confide in me.